It’s been an incredibly busy, productive first year for the Ottawa Climate Action Fund (OCAF). But the climate crisis isn’t slowing down, and neither are we.
Every project we’ve taken on so far—from the Ottawa Climate Equity Initiative to EV Experience/Expérience VÉ—has been about building partnerships and setting the stage to scale up our work.
“We’re providing resources and creating opportunities for organizations to grow their capacity, by attracting more funding and working collaboratively across sectors,” says Executive Director Steve Winkelman. “That’s important, and not just because we want to help everyone. It’s about our climate numbers and the number of Ottawans we engage, driving toward a vision that includes decarbonizing buildings and transportation, more sustainable land use, walkable 15-minute communities, and better quality of life for all.”
Over the next year, watch for OCAF to grow our team, launch a coordinated climate communications and awareness campaign, advance social enterprise opportunities and develop a direct investing program to identify cornerstone projects where a modest, timely infusion of cash can make an outsized difference.
“Everything we do is aimed at informing and inspiring, scale-up of low-carbon solutions,” he says. “Some of those pathways are through wallets, some of them are through the heart, some of them are through the mind. All of them involve deep collaboration with diverse stakeholders to find and accelerate the strategies that work best.”